First Professional Football League (Bulgaria)
Bulgaria | confed = UEFA | founded = 1924 (as BSFC) 1948 (as A Group) 2016 (reformed as Parva Liga) | dissolved = | folded = | divisions = 1 | teams = 14 | feeds = | promotion = | relegation = Second League | nationalitylevel = | levels = 1 | domest_cup = Bulgarian Cup Bulgarian Supercup | confed_cup = Champions League Europa League | champions = Ludogorets Razgrad (5th title) | season = 2015–16 | most_successful_club = CSKA Sofia (31 titles) | tv = Nova Broadcasting Group | current = 2017–18 season | website = http://www.fpleague.bg/ }} The First Professional Football League is a Bulgarian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Bulgarian football league system, it serves as the country's primary football competition. The league determines the champion of Bulgaria and contested by fourteen teams it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the second tier of the Bulgarian football league pyramid, the Second League. First League was formed during the summer of 2016 with the restructure and rebranding the name of the top division of Bulgarian football. The First League is formed by a regular season and playoffs. Each of the fourteen teams participating in the league must play at least two times against every other team on a home-away basis before starting the playoffs stages. Seasons run from late July to May in the following year with a winter break, which usually lasts two months. Most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with some played during weekday evenings, mainly on Friday and Monday. The TV rights for the league matches are owned by the media company "Football Pro Media" and the games are broadcast live on the channels Diema, Diema Sport and Diema Sport 2, part of the Diema Extra paid pack. The Bulgarian football championship was inaugurated in 1924 as BSFC and it has been playing as a league format since 1948 when A Group was created as the top tier of the Bulgarian football league pyramid. The top division of Bulgarian football has been restructured for season 2016–17 with the participating teams taking ownership stake in the tournament and rebranding the name to First League while it is still being administered by the Bulgarian Professional Football League and the Bulgarian Football Union. The champion of First League has the right to take part in the UEFA Champions League from the stage allowed by the league's coefficient. The two UEFA Europa League spots are allocated to the second team in the final standings and the winner of the playoffs. All teams qualify for the Bulgarian Cup which also offers UEFA Europa League spot. In every season, the teams in First League start participating in the competition from Round 2 (Round of 32) in the middle of November. A total of 67 clubs have competed in the top tier of Bulgarian football. In the last several seasons, many teams such as the current champions Ludogorets made their debuts in the top division of Bulgarian football. In the first season of Parva Liga - season 2016–17, Vereya from Stara Zagora became the 67th club to ever participate in the top division competition. Since season 1948, eleven teams have been crowned champions of Bulgaria. The three most successful clubs are CSKA Sofia with 31 titles, Levski Sofia with 26 titles and Slavia Sofia with 7 titles. The current champions Ludogorets Razgrad won their fifth consecutive and overall championship title in their fifth A Group season of 2015–16. Current clubs 2016–17 The following clubs are competing in First Professional Football League during the 2016–17 season. External links *Official website *League at UEFA *Bulgaria – List of Champions, RSSSF.com *Table , at xscores.com 1 Category:Bulgarian A Professional Football Group Bul